SAN DIEGO — During his annual Winter Meetings media scrum on Tuesday afternoon at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, superagent Scott Boras was full of puns and one-liners.
There was at least one for each team he was asked about.
The San Diego Padres, he said, “are far from Midway.” The Red Sox are just “so so,” without X, the nickname of their longtime shortstop Xander Bogaerts, one of his clients. The “Golden Gates in (San Francisco) are Farhan and wide,” he said, playing off Giants general manager Farhan Zaidi’s name.
And the Twins?
“The Twins normally are fishing in one of their 10,000 lakes,” Boras said. “Well now I think they’re in the deep ocean.”
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All that to say the Twins are looking to make a splash. And the biggest fish they’re hoping to reel in?
Carlos Correa.
Boras, who represents Correa as well as other players the Twins have been linked to including Bogaerts and starter Carlos Rodón, met with Twins brass late on Monday night. A group, which included manager Rocco Baldelli, also went to dinner with Boras and Correa over the weekend as the Twins push hard to bring the shortstop back.
Boras complimented the team’s young core of players, many of whom are his clients — Ryan Jeffers, Alex Kirilloff and Royce Lewis among them — and said the Twins are “certainly trying to retain the veteran leadership that Carlos provided them.”
While Trea Turner came off the board on Monday, reportedly agreeing to an 11-year, $300 million deal with the Philadelphia Phillies, Correa, Bogaerts and Dansby Swanson remain of the vaunted free agent shortstop class.
“It’s moving pretty fluidly,” Boras said of talks with his two shortstops. “We have multiple teams and multiple offers that have come in in the last few days.”
How Correa’s market shapes up could be determined by what slugger Aaron Judge ultimately does, as the Giants, who are said to be one of the finalists for Judge, could get more involved in the Correa sweepstakes should they miss out on the outfielder.
“It’s a rare opportunity to get a player at this age, 28. We don’t have many free agents at 26, 27, 28 that hit the market with proven leadership skills,” Boras said. “He fits all franchises because he fits a now franchise, he fits a building franchise. Obviously, the contracts are long-term and his leadership skills are well-documented. Championship-level player. He’s really ideal for a lot of teams.”
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And the Twins, who have now had a season to see firsthand how ideal of a fit he is for them, certainly agree. A day earlier, Baldelli said that what Correa offers is what the Twins “want and need,” which is why the team feels comfortable offering him terms that far exceed any deal they’ve ever made.
And while Correa is clearly their top target, the Twins, who have money to spend, are preparing for other alternatives — and looking in the deep ocean to find them.
“We’ve never operated in a way that we singularly are focused on just one position, one need or one area. If there’s ways to be creative and a new way to make our team better, our goal is to make our team better and try to add to it,” president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said. “Sometimes that has to get done creatively in different ways but I would say I don’t feel a specific pressure if there’s no Carlos than there’s one other player we have to get. … If we find there’s another good way to make our team better, we’re going to have that conversation. Quite frankly, we’re having them now because we need to be prepared.”
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